Frost
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So Christmas day, I was over at an almost-relative’s house for dinner. To set the scene a bit, I was in a small smoking room with my mother and her significant other. My mother was enjoying her Parliament Light cigarette (barf!), and her significant other was enjoying one of the Perdomo Lot 23 cigars we gave him for Christmas.
I was breaking in one of my Christmas gift pipes with half a bowl of boswell's premium burley while we all chatted about this and that. I had to re-light a few times as I spent too much time chatting between puffs, and after about the 3rd relight my mother remarked something to the effect of "Seems like smoking a pipe is hard work".
I thought about it a bit and realized that she is right in a sense when compared to cigars or cigarettes. They were both lit up and puffing by the time I got my tobacco, pipe, cleaners matches and tamper out of my bag. The cigarette was finished before I even got the pipe fully lit, and the cigar was about finished while I still had almost 1/3rd of the bowl left.
It is not easy being a pipe smoker these days. Sometimes it seems like the world is conspiring to prevent you from just relaxing and enjoying a dang pipe when really that is all you want to do. I am often surprise at how difficult it can be to make the time to enjoy a pipe.
I used to meditate a bit, and find that meditation presented similar mental challenges to pipe smoking, and similar psychological rewards as well. It seems that modern life is so often full of distractions and is almost designed specifically to take time away from the pleasurable pastimes and activities...those very things that help us to better deal with and endure the less pleasurable and fun aspects of our day to day.
It seems to me that this is wrong, and I have never quite been able to reconcile these feelings with the realities of...reality. Thinking on it now, reminds me of how I felt during my teenage years: just a general feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment towards alot of the everyday this and that. I think the difference between then and now is not so much that those thoughts or that attitude dissapeared, but more as if they have been counter-balanced with a profound appreciation and love for those all too rare times when I am able to just sit and smoke my pipe, or relax at home with my wife, or take a vacation to some new and exciting place.
It seems to me that these are the things that I must always keep in mind and make every effort to maintain and protect as they are constantly under assault from the daily grind. These are the things that I worry about losing when lying awake at night, unable to sleep ‘cause my brain won’t shut up. Pretty much everything else I do is endured so that I can have these things and enjoy those times.
A Buddhist would probably say that these are just more worldly attachments, and should be "let go" in order to reach enlightenment. I am not so sure.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this. I guess as the title suggests, this is just a long rant really. Assuming you read this far, feel free to share any thoughts or opinions. Or not.
-Adam
I was breaking in one of my Christmas gift pipes with half a bowl of boswell's premium burley while we all chatted about this and that. I had to re-light a few times as I spent too much time chatting between puffs, and after about the 3rd relight my mother remarked something to the effect of "Seems like smoking a pipe is hard work".
I thought about it a bit and realized that she is right in a sense when compared to cigars or cigarettes. They were both lit up and puffing by the time I got my tobacco, pipe, cleaners matches and tamper out of my bag. The cigarette was finished before I even got the pipe fully lit, and the cigar was about finished while I still had almost 1/3rd of the bowl left.
It is not easy being a pipe smoker these days. Sometimes it seems like the world is conspiring to prevent you from just relaxing and enjoying a dang pipe when really that is all you want to do. I am often surprise at how difficult it can be to make the time to enjoy a pipe.
I used to meditate a bit, and find that meditation presented similar mental challenges to pipe smoking, and similar psychological rewards as well. It seems that modern life is so often full of distractions and is almost designed specifically to take time away from the pleasurable pastimes and activities...those very things that help us to better deal with and endure the less pleasurable and fun aspects of our day to day.
It seems to me that this is wrong, and I have never quite been able to reconcile these feelings with the realities of...reality. Thinking on it now, reminds me of how I felt during my teenage years: just a general feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment towards alot of the everyday this and that. I think the difference between then and now is not so much that those thoughts or that attitude dissapeared, but more as if they have been counter-balanced with a profound appreciation and love for those all too rare times when I am able to just sit and smoke my pipe, or relax at home with my wife, or take a vacation to some new and exciting place.
It seems to me that these are the things that I must always keep in mind and make every effort to maintain and protect as they are constantly under assault from the daily grind. These are the things that I worry about losing when lying awake at night, unable to sleep ‘cause my brain won’t shut up. Pretty much everything else I do is endured so that I can have these things and enjoy those times.
A Buddhist would probably say that these are just more worldly attachments, and should be "let go" in order to reach enlightenment. I am not so sure.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this. I guess as the title suggests, this is just a long rant really. Assuming you read this far, feel free to share any thoughts or opinions. Or not.
-Adam
